Officials with the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Route 66 Alliance on Tuesday announced that Joplin, Mo., will be the host city for the 2013 International Route 66 Festival on Aug. 2-4.
Michael Wallis, co-founder of the Alliance and author of the best-selling “Route 66: The Mother Road,” along with Alliance co-founder Rick Freeland and Route 66 Association of Missouri president Tommy Pike make remarks during the announcement Tuesday afternoon at Joplin City Hall.
According to the news release:
The festival offers many different activities including exhibits and vintage car shows that showcase Route 66’s impact on the American culture, through transportation, art and entertainment. Artist, authors and collectors join in the event to celebrate and share their stories about the Route 66 heritage.
The Main Street America Marketplace offers vendors an opportunity to show and sell their Route 66 specialties. Additionally, bike rallies, a beauty pageant, military exhibitions, carnival rides and other activities offer an experience for all ages. As with any festival, the International Route 66 Festival will include the traditional delicacies associated with a festive atmosphere, as well as exposing those attending to the local culture, this year featuring the various favorites of Missouri.
Each year during this festival, Route 66 enthusiasts, commonly known as “roadies”, gather at a summit meeting to discuss the Route’s preservation, history and legislative matters. This year’s meeting will be held on Friday, Aug. 2, and will bring together the National Park Service and the eight state associations to discuss concerns and achievements in keeping the historic route alive.
A full agenda of activities for the roadies as well as the local residence participation is being planned. Many of the events will take place on or along Route 66 which will provide a keen opportunity to educate a new generation to the significance and value of living along Route 66.
Tuttle also told this to KSN-KODE-TV in Joplin:
“We’re actually going to be doing some advertising in Europe about this event, and about Joplin, and then we’ll also connect that with the rest of the Route 66 communities in Missouri.”
One of the things that sold organizers about Joplin was its Third Thursday street festivals, held in downtown during the spring and summer months. Because the city already is well-experienced in dealing with street galas, it didn’t take much to persuade organizers that Joplin is ready for the Route 66 event.
This is a rooftop view of a Third Thursday festival earlier this summer:
Also, the festival would become a symbol of the city’s recovery after a devastating tornado in 2011. And a festival that attracts thousands certainly would boost Joplin’s economy a bit.
UPDATE: The Joplin Globe has posted a story. It seems there’s a discrepancy on whether the festival is Aug. 2-4 (according to the news release) or Aug. 1-3 (according to the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce and several media outlets). Regardless, the bulk of the action will take place on the Friday and Saturday of that weekend, which is Aug. 2-3. Events may occur on that Thursday or Sunday, but it’s not assured yet.
(Photos courtesy of Ron Hart at the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce)
That’s Great. Glad they got it. Easy drive for us. Already on our calendar.
The Route 66 Chamber of Commerce had posted the dates to “Roadies” as August 1 – 4 because the Route 66 Yahoo Group usually arrives a day early to have their breakfast gathering and meeting on Thursday mornings. The actual public venues will be August 2 – 4. To eliminate any confusion, the Chamber will promote the Festival for August 2 – 4 to eliminate any confusion.
Hope to see you all next August. Thanks.